Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Liberal Party used to take delight in lecturing us about family values, about those values of the 1950s that they hold so dear, but they have not been talking family values so much lately, because they have been caught up in their own family feud. Their self-obsession has blinded them to the realities that are confronting Australian families, the people we represent.

Mr Nikolic interjecting—

It is a family feud, and what is striking about it is that, in functioning families, people can talk through their disagreements, but the member for Bass can only correspond with his family members by emails—pretty unhelpful, pretty unconstructive emails.

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Braddon, you've got a very loud voice.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That leads me to ask myself: what sort of family is it? While they may like the 1950s, it is not like Happy Days. It is more like the Addams family, more like the Griswolds. We saw duelling parliamentary secretaries over the co-payment issue this morning, as just one example. But it should not be about their family; it should be about the families we all represent—the impact of $5.5 billion in cuts to family payments, the impact of cuts to child care effectively shutting down Indigenous early learning centres. So I join my colleague the member for Griffith in asking members opposite to think about Taylor Swift and to 'shake it off', to shake off the policy agenda, not the personality problems, that bedevil this government. It is your policies that matter, and you should be concentrating on real family values: dignity, security and lives that effectively enable people to balance work and life.